Today we’d like to introduce you to JR Bishop (Brother).
JR, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I have no idea where my story begins. The most resonant thing right now is that my story is wrapped up in the story of my family. It’s a mixed bag, but my family has given me everything I’ve needed to create art; my mother has given me rhythm, my father has given me melody and harmony, my sister’s dance classes have given me a sense of my body, my uncle’s mentorship has given me a career in record production… my family has given me equal doses of religion and skepticism, conservatism and liberalism, whiteness and brownness. They have given me reasons to think about death, God, identity and belonging. Actually, I think I can confidently say that 100% of my story is 100% the story of my family.
I don’t quite know what or who I am, and I think that’s the story of my art. I sit at the tension point between a lot of things — am I conservative or liberal? Am I White or Filipino? Am I a child of God or am I lucky? There’s an endless supply of unresolved questions in my life and that has created a lot of problems for me. I think looking for the answers to those questions is why I’m creative. At some point in my journey, I let go of the answers I was looking for and became captivated with the act of searching, wondering, longing, hoping. That searching being something we all share is how I’ve found belonging in making art. We exist in the tension of in-betweens… the and/or/but realm. For me, art is about exploring the tension in our existence and making a song out of it. That’s the stuff that resonates with me because it’s the place where I feel most connected with others.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
The big thing for me right now is making records. There’s two fronts to that — I make records professionally and I produce my own music.
I started in the studio when I was 12 or 13. My uncle is a successful producer in LA and we were at my grandma’s memorial service when he first invited me to come to his place and record my songs. We made three demos in a weekend there and I was so proud of it. So I got my own Pro Tools rig and started recording stuff in my bedroom. I was taking trips to LA to learn from him and soak up everything I could from sharing breathing room with all of these incredible musicians. Eventually, I started working for him. By the time I was out of high school, I had already produced a couple of my own records and worked in some really incredible spaces. I kept doing it through college and now, people are hiring me to make their records for them. I’ve really come to appreciate connecting with people’s art and bringing it to life. It’s a totally different side to making music than doing stuff on your own. For that, my goal is translation. I want to take someone’s soul and put it through the speakers.
My own music is the place where I feel I can most freely explore the full scope of my own life, questions, hopes, dreams, fears, etc. Just this last year, I took five months after my college graduation to hike 1,400 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail. I still don’t know what I was looking for out there, but I brought a guitar with me, wrote a bunch of songs and recorded a bunch of samples with my iPhone. I came home and turned it into a record. I love approaching things with a concept and throwing enough chance in there to make things a little scary. Like… how in the world am I going to make this work? I hate that I give myself such a headache with it, but I don’t know if I’ll ever get away from it. I always think “the next one is gonna be so straightforward”….until it’s not.
Up next, I want to take one of those ancestry DNA tests and go travel the world making a series of records with people I share heritage with. I’m an ethnic mutt, so I think it’d be a cool way to explore identity in a way that’s more externally focused. I know I’ve got a bunch of family in Norway that are big in the jazz scene there. And I have a lot of family in the Philippines… I think it’d be cool to go there and make albums together. If there’s one thing you should know about my art, it’s that for me, it’s all about human connection. That’s why my dream is to collaborate with artists all around the world.
Artists face many challenges, but what do you feel is the most pressing among them?
I think the biggest challenge for artists (and their biggest asset) is the sheer amount of change our world is going through. Artists have always had to balance their work against the socio-economic models of the time. I think what’s difficult right now is how fast the world is changing; it’s hard to know where to place your cards.
On top of that, there’s more noise than ever. How are you gonna break through that? Attention is money right now. The longer I can keep your eyes and ears on me, the more value my art has in today’s working socio-economic model. The issue is, good art isn’t always going to play to a short attention span. And frankly, I don’t want to be swimming upstream, competing with everybody on the planet for the half-baked attention and likes of a social media following. It’s not good for my life and I don’t think it engages people in any committed or meaningful way with my art. But that’s what is working right now. You’ve got to be one of these social media influencers.
Well, I have strong opinions about that, but that’s what is working right now. How do we make meaningful art in our current socio-economic context? That’s not a new question, but I think our generation of artists certainly has to be creative with the ways we approach these problems because the models that worked even a decade ago won’t work anymore. It’s our greatest challenge, but also our greatest asset. It’s birthing a lot of creativity.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
My music is up all over the internet, iTunes, Spotify, YouTube…wherever you listen to music. This link (linktr.ee/musicbybrother) will take you to a landing page that can redirect you to all of those places.
If you’re interested in hearing my production work, you can check out my website jrbishop.com.
If you would like to support me, you should get connected with my music. Follow me on social media @musicbybrother. Come to my shows. Buy my records. Tell your friends. Be a part of it!
Making art is meaningful, but the financing it can be difficult. If you want to support my work financially, you are most welcome. You can reach me via the contact page on my website (www.jrbishop.com/contact).
Contact Info:
- Website: jrbishop.com
- Email: jrbishopmusic@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/musicbybrother
- Facebook: facebook.com/musicbybrother
- Twitter: twitter.com/musicbybrother
- Other: youtube.com/user/jrbishopofficial
Image Credit:
Milly Wang, Jakelen Diaz, Savannah Walters, Scott Coiner, Keet Veylupek
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
